Page 16

CHAPTER 16

REESE

I made sure to stay after the home game today against the Golden Knights for just long enough to catch Nash and give him a congratulatory hug before having to dash home and catch up on some work.

I hate having to hurry back to my apartment after such an amazing win, but I have to check on a few of my sister’s socials before I double-check the analytics on the latest video I posted on the Badgers’ page.

Filling up my water, I take my cup back to my small working desk tucked into the corner of my bedroom and open up my laptop. I do my best to hydrate while going through my sister’s socials, making a few tweaks to a couple of the SEO keywords on her website before switching my brain to Badgers mode.

My latest edit focuses on Daniel Marentrade, a vet on the Badgers who’s looking to capitalize off some attention. He’s a nice guy, attractive, married, and a hell of a player. He was super fun to work with, and I especially loved getting some good shots of him and his wife who he happens to be head over heels in love with. They have the kind of relationship that gives everyone around them relationship goals.

I check the analytics on his spotlight edits, a string of seven videos I’ve created, having posted the third one just this morning. The first two got over a million views each, but today’s is off the charts with a whopping seven million. It’s close to surpassing mine and Nash’s first video, which is pinned to the page and currently sitting at twelve million views.

The engagement for Daniel’s video today is huge, with over sixty thousand comments. I take a deep breath before opening them, knowing I can’t possibly read them all but can skim enough to get a general vibe of the overall response to the edit.

Are all hockey players this hot? Where has this sport been all my life?

I would kill to have someone look at me the way he does his wife.

Anyone else have this team’s warmup routine on repeat or is it just me because DAMN.

Okay, not too bad so far. Pretty tame. I keep scrolling.

I would let this man Badger me any day of the week. Nights too.

Especially the nights!

He’s married.

Who gives a shit? Let me catch him outside at an away game.

I would ride him just like he skates, hard and fast.

Jesus. Those are getting a little more intense. Sexual comments are to be expected when we’re throwing thirst traps in their faces every day, but some of these are toeing the line of inappropriate.

I sit back in my chair, chewing on my bottom lip as I continue to scroll. After a few hours of reading, it’s clear there are more sexual comments than appreciative ones, and a small panic takes up residence in my chest.

Scooping up my phone, I dial Monroe.

“Hey, Reese,” she says by way of answer.

“Hey, Monroe,” I say.

“Oh shit, what is it?”

I sigh. “You can tell just like that?”

“Yep. Who do I need to kill?”

I laugh. “The internet?”

“Oh, tall order, but we can get to work on it.”

“Thanks,” I say. “Did you see the edit I did for Daniel this morning?”

“Yeah, I loved it. He’s such a sweetheart doting on his wife.”

“I thought that was the vibe too, but after scrolling through the comments for a few hours, I’m worried I’ve done something bad.”

“I never read the comments,” she says. “They make my brain itch. What’s the gist of it?”

“There are way more sexually intense comments than normal. Nothing too R-rated yet, but heading that direction. And yes, we always get some sexual comments because the edits feature a hell of a lot of thirst traps. Nash’s videos get more than anyone’s and it doesn’t bother me, but I don’t know, this feels different. Or like it’s on the verge of being different.”

“Give me an example of one that feels different,” she says. “Maybe you’re overthinking it. I can offer a fresh perspective since I don’t read them.”

“Oh, good idea,” I say, leaning over my desk to look at my notes. I wrote some down in my iPad that I felt were a little…ick. “Here’s one that I flagged in my notes,” I say. “ Marentrade could score a goal in every single net I have, and I’d say thank you every single time. ”

“Yikes,” she says. “That’s still inuendo enough that I don’t hate it, but I get the feeling you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, and here’s another one,” I continue. “ Did you guys see his wife on Insta? Like, how does she hold down a man like that? ”

“Eww,” she says. “That’s just wrong.”

“Right? Like, I get it. Half the men on the Badgers are gorgeous, but why go after their wives or girlfriends?”

“Hold up, do they say things about you too?”

“Yeah,” I say, shrugging even though she can’t see me. “But it doesn’t bother me. I know what a catch Nash is. I don’t need trolls on the internet to tell me that.”

“Ugh, babe, why didn’t you tell me?”

I laugh. “Why? So you could go respond to the mean ones?”

“Maybe,” she says.

“I promise you, it doesn’t bother me at all. But, I can’t say the same for Daniel’s wife. I’ll do a check-in with him tomorrow, but do you think I should take this video down?”

“That’s a tough call,” she says. “I can’t believe people can be so invasive. I mean, I can believe it, but damn . Are they all like that or is some of the engagement good like your other videos.”

“Definitely not all,” I say. “I can’t read them all, but there are a ton of good ones on there. Even a few comments from bigger brand pages who I know are looking at him.”

“And that’s why he wanted a feature, right?” she asks.

“Yeah, that’s why they all do,” I say. “The attention is a good icebreaker for making deals. I’ve been setting up several meetings to talk spotlight edits with a bunch of different Badgers. I even have one set up for Liam’s friend, Darrell.”

“Oh, yikes, good luck with him.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know,” she says, hesitantly. “Whenever he’s with Liam, it’s like…they feed off of each other. Liam turns into a different guy when he’s around his friends, so I try my best to only see him solo, which is pretty easy since he lives right next door to me.”

“If you think his friends are a red flag…” I say, letting my sentence hang there.

“I know, Blakely and Pax have already lectured me enough. It’s not like it’s super serious between us, we’re just having fun. Well, I am. He’s serious sometimes.”

“Meaning?”

“He does a lot of drop-bys,” she says. “Which I guess is normal since he’s literally right down the hall from me. But still, you know me, I like a heads-up. Plus, he keeps trying to lock down all these future plans and you know I’m not about that.”

“I know you hate planning too far out,” I say. “Have you told him it’s a more casual thing for you?”

“Yes,” she says. “But he laughs and jokes about if it’s not serious then why do I see him so much?”

“But you see him so much because half the time he’s dropping by unannounced?”

“Yep.”

“Sounds…fun?”

Monroe laughs. “It’s definitely interesting. I do have fun with him, especially when he’s not around Darrell or Jake. So, there’s that.”

“Okay, well, you know I’m here if you ever need to talk that out more.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m good now. Again, I’ve told him a dozen times I’m not a serious relationship person. If he doesn’t accept that soon, I’ll dip out.” She sighs. “Now, what are you going to do? It sounds like the video is mostly doing what you want it to do, which is get your player attention.”

“Right, it is. If I delete it, he’ll lose all that traction and won’t have it as a reference for deals. And I would turn off the ability to comment, but the interaction only propels the views.”

“Shit, I don’t envy your career right now.”

“I never envy yours,” I tease. “I could never learn every muscle name and function, let alone how to manipulate them to give the team relief.”

“We all have our talents,” she says. “Yours is definitely helping the team too, just in a different way. I don’t think the comments are bad enough yet to risk losing him a potential deal.”

I blow out a breath. “I’m leaning that way too. I’ll keep an eye on it though. Hopefully they don’t get worse, but you know the internet.”

“Yeah, feed it what it wants too much and eventually it’ll shit on you.”

“Exactly. Okay, thanks for talking this out with me.”

“Anytime, babe.”

“Love.”

“Love,” she says before hanging up.

I set down my phone, rubbing my palms over my face. I feel better after talking to her, but I still have that nagging sensation at the back of my mind that just won’t quit.

My phone vibrates on my desk, and I scoop it up, fully expecting it to be Monroe calling back because she forgot to tell me something…

But it’s not.

It’s Crossland McClaren, owner of the damn Badgers.

Fuck a duck.

“Hello, Mr. McClaren,” I answer.

“Hey, Reese,” he says, sounding casual enough.

But this is the owner. I highly doubt he’s calling to give me another ego boost like he did in our last meeting with Coach.

“What can I do for you?” I ask.

“I just got a call from our public relations manager,” he says. “She was bringing me up to speed on the progression of the videos you’ve been doing for us.”

“Okay,” I say.

“Looks like a recent one is getting some negative comments?”

My shoulders drop. I get why the PR rep would talk to Crossland about it because she works more closely with him than I do, but damn, she could’ve given me a heads-up.

“Yes,” I say. “It’s from the video I posted today. I’ve actually been reading the comments for the last few hours. I flagged several, but I feel there are more good ones than bad and that the attention Daniel is getting outweighs the negative right now.”

“I trust your judgment,” he says, which is a small relief. “I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page. The way you’ve grown our audience is amazing and no one can contest that. Ticket sales are up and there are new fans, which is awesome, but the last thing we need is a PR scandal right now. Especially during round two of the playoffs with conference finals in our sights.”

“Of course,” I say. “That’s the last thing I want too. I promise. I’m going to post a tamer video tonight and hope that helps draw the negative focus enough to move forward without having to take any videos down or stop my highlight of Daniel. He really does deserve the spotlight.”

“That sounds good,” he says. “Let me know how that goes. You can email me the updates or text at this number. I want you to know that you have my full support, I just like to be in the loop.”

“Got it,” I say. “Thank you.”

“Talk soon,” he says before hanging up, and I set down my phone again.

I rake my fingers through my hair, my mind racing with a whole new load of work I need to do for the evening. I don’t have a tame video of Daniel, and the four I have left are the same eye-catching style we’ve been working with the past few months, but I can create something from the extra footage I have of him.

I take a huge gulp of water, then head into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, knowing this long night will require caffeine.

By the time I’ve poured myself a cup, my phone is buzzing again.

Jesus, what now?

I see Nash’s picture on my screen and relax a little as I swipe it open. “Hey, Nash,” I say, sinking into my office chair.

“Hey, Reese’s Pieces,” he says, his tone laced with joy, no doubt still flying high after tonight’s win. “What are you up to?”

“I’m at my desk,” I say, taking a sip of coffee.

“Working? Still? It’s been a few hours, I thought you’d be done.”

“I thought I would too,” I say. “But I have to create an edit from scratch with a different angle, so it’s going to take me a while.”

“Oh, damn,” he says. “I was hoping I could come over and we could celebrate.”

A pang of guilt hits me. “I would love that?—”

“Then why don’t I just grab some snacks and head over? I can support you while you work.”

I laugh. “We both know the last thing you’ll be doing is supporting me,” I tease. “Distraction might be your middle name.”

“I thought you loved my distractions,” he says in a pouty voice.

“I do,” I say, sighing. The stress in my chest mounts. I hate telling him no, but I really have to get this done. “This is just important.”

“Okay,” he says, but I can hear the disappointment in his voice.

“I am so proud of you,” I hurry to say. “You played amazing tonight. If I didn’t have to do this, I would take you up on the offer.”

“No, it’s okay,” he says. “I don’t want to distract you from your work. We can celebrate another time. There’s always conference finals,” he says, a little more hopeful.

“Right,” I say. “Thanks for understanding.” I clear my throat. “What are you going to do tonight, then?”

“Pax and Lawson want to go out,” he says. “I wasn’t going to go, but since you’re busy, I’ll probably hang with them.”

“That’ll be fun.” A pang of jealousy hits me. I wish I could go out with him, celebrate with him and our friends. Wish I could be there to be his sole focus because fuck knows there will be plenty of other women just waiting?—

No.

Stop.

We’re not going down that road.

He said he didn’t want to pretend anymore, and we aren’t.

Have we laid out strict terms, like we’re exclusive? Nope. But that doesn’t matter, I know Nash. He’d never do anything to hurt me like that.

“I’ll miss you,” he says, soothing that raging jealously inside me.

“Miss you,” I say before we hang up.

I set my phone to do not disturb and do my best to focus. I need to create something that will get our engagement back to a less precarious ground.

I just hope like hell I can manage it.